Black Star is pleased to officially announce the commencement of a second round of our offering of Member-Investor Shares!

We first offered Member-Investor Shares  in 2008 with the goal of raising $375,000 and quickly reached our interim goals to launch the location search. However, the offering was put on hiatus that fall as the search took longer than we expected. We have since found a longterm home, completed the architectural and engineering plans, and submitted the documents for permitting by the City. We plan to begin construction at the end of this month and need further investment from our membership to bring our brewpub into this world.

This second round of Member-Investor Shares has the same goal as before, $375,000, and with the combination of current and previous investments, the build-out fund from the landlord, and new member-owners we are already over half way to the total project cost.

The Member-Investor Shares are another class of equity in our Co-op, roughly akin to non-voting preferred stock, and are available only to Invested Members. We plan to raise the remainder of our startup capital through this offering, and in doing so we will finance the business from within our community–without relying on bank financing. The minimum investment is just $500, and there are incentives for larger investments first at $5,000 and again for investments over $10,000. The total goal of $375,000 is equivalent to just 150 member-owner investing an average of $2,500 each. To put that into perspective, there are currently over 1,300 members of our Co-op. We can do this, and must do it together as a co-operative.

If you have any questions about the offering, or are ready to make an investment, please contact us at (512) 452-BEER or email invest@blackstar.coop. We ask that every member-owner able to make an investment do so today. After all, the sooner we reach our goal, the sooner we can open our brewpub!